Introduce NCC As Elective Subject: UGC to Varsities

University Grants Commission (UGC) has released an official statement which directed the universities to introduce National Cadet Corps (NCC) as an elective/optional subject to the students. Jaspal S Sandhu, Secretary of UGC indicated that offering NCC as an elective subject would benefit the students.

Jaspal has made a reference to the guidelines issued by Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) on August 23, 2016, regarding the implementation of NCC as an elective subject. Ministry of Defence wrote to MHRD on the same and MHRD has issued guidelines to UGC.

Jaspal mentioned that the decision for the implementation of NCC as an elective subject was initially taken at JSR&D Conference on July 30, 2015. In the conference, it was decided that all the universities across the country must introduce NCC as an optional/elective subject.

Jaspal clarified that any questions relating to the matter have to be directed to the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) at the Defence Ministry.

Earlier, Manohar Parrikar, Defence Minister said that the government should implement mandatory NCC training in all the schools and colleges. For this purpose, the government must provide infrastructure and workforce. He raised the issue during the Question Hour of Lok Sabha in the month of August.

He revealed the statistics stating that only 13 lakh students are being trained in NCC every year. If the government implements mandatory NCC training, around four crore youth, will be trained every year. On the other hand, most of the schools and colleges do not have a proper infrastructure which is becoming a barrier for mandatory NCC training.